right moi we have a speaker, -- right now we have a speaker, speake,speaker, boehner, who i d like, but i doesn't want to talk to the democrats. nothing is going to get done if we don't talk to each other. we don't have a parliamentary system. we have to work together. so with that, i wanted to add at least a cautiously optimistic note that i am a hopeful -- that i'm hopeful that we will get something done. and i think if we do and if it's fair -- fair enough, we should get our country off this cliff. thank you very much. i yield the floor. mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, one of the managers of, i guess, of being president pro tempore, i get to preside more than i had for a while and hear some of the speeches of my colleagues, which i appreciate. the senate is a place i love, as i know the distinguished presiding officer does, and it is, as i've often said, a place that should be the conscience of the nation. there's only a hundred of us representing over 300 million americans. we should be able to stand up and be the